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35-549: The land on which the property is built was acquired by Joseph Cawthra in 1809. The farmland, which came to be known as the Grove Farm, was granted to Agar Adamson and Mabel Cawthra as a wedding gift. Agar Adamson, born on Christmas Day 1865, was the grandson of William Agar Adamson an influential Toronto clergyman. He married into the Cawthra family whose legacy in Peel lives on through

70-529: A National Historic Site of Canada . Designed by architect William Warren Baldwin , 1825–27, the bank resembled a London townhouse with a Doric portico. The Toronto building is on the Registry of Historical Places of Canada, along with two branches. The 86 John Street branch in Port Hope, Ontario , built in 1857 by Cumberland and Storm (last operated by Ontario Bank in 1881 and now Hotel Carlyle and Restaurant) and

105-591: A key role in solidifying the Family Compact and ensuring its influence within the colonial state. Forty-four men served as bank directors during the 1830s; eleven of them were executive councillors, fifteen of them were legislative councillors, and thirteen were magistrates in Toronto. More importantly, all 11 men who had ever sat on the Executive Council also sat on the board of the bank at one time or another. Ten of

140-514: A legislated Act in order to operate. The joint stock banks thus lacked limited liability , and every partner in the bank was responsible for the bank's debts to the full extent of their personal property. The chartered banks, in contrast, protected their shareholders with limited liability and hence from major loss; they thus encouraged speculation. The Scottish joint-stock banks followed a " hard money policy ." They avoided speculative risk because if they failed, their shareholders were responsible for

175-549: A result of his involvement in profiteering during the War of 1812. Eventually Cawthra money was invested in other enterprises throughout the city, especially real estate. When he died, he left the bulk of his great estate and business interests to one of his sons, William Cawthra . Cawthra served one term as the Alderman for St. Lawrence Ward on the inaugural 1834 Toronto City Council before being defeated by conservative candidates. His seat

210-533: A son named Cawthra Mulock or his mother Mary Cawthra, daughter of John Cawthra . Bank of Upper Canada The Bank of Upper Canada was established in 1821 under a charter granted by the legislature of Upper Canada in 1819 to a group of Kingston merchants. The charter was appropriated by the more influential Executive Councillors to the Lt. Governor, the Rev. John Strachan and William Allan , and moved to Toronto. The bank

245-540: A special act of legislature allowed it to continue operating without having to repay its loans with specie. The bank was a small operation, which, like many other early Canadian banks, collapsed in 1866. On 10 July 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill for the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States , arguing that it was utilized by a "moneyed aristocracy" to oppress the common man. The same complaint

280-534: Is the family pet cemetery which has been recently surrounded by a wrought iron fence with stone pillars and memorial plaque. The old mansion of the Adamson Estate is now leased to the City of Mississauga to operate as a public park. 43°33′43″N 79°34′01″W  /  43.562°N 79.567°W  / 43.562; -79.567 Joseph Cawthra Joseph Cawthra (14 October 1759 – 15 February 1842)

315-675: The Farmers' Storehouse company . That came to an end in 1835 when Charles Duncombe produced a "Report on Currency" for the Legislative Assembly, which demonstrated the legality of the Scottish joint-stock bank system in Upper Canada. The difference between the English chartered banks and the Scottish joint stock banks is that the Scottish banks were considered partnerships and hence didn't need

350-465: The 1970s, and much of it is now retained by the City of Mississauga as parkland. Cawthra married Mary Turnpenny in 1801 and they had at least 9 children, 6 sons and three daughters, including: Cawthra founded and ran several businesses in Yorkshire and New York before opening Toronto's first apothecary shop, which would establish the base for his family's great wealth. Joseph's wealth grew enormously as

385-519: The American Revolutionary War but had devalued badly, leading to general distrust of banknotes. Banknotes then were not legal tender, issued by a state bank. They were, rather, similar to cheques written by the bank promising to pay the bearer with "real" (usually metallic) money, or specie , if they returned the cheque to the bank. Any bank that could not redeem its banknotes with specie was forced to close for good. The Bank of Upper Canada

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420-596: The Bank of Upper Canada used all of its influence to prevent any other bank from being chartered in the province. The monopoly was crucial to keeping its notes in circulation and boosting its profits. It succeeded only until 1832, when the Commercial Bank of the Midland District was chartered finally giving Kingston the bank it desired. Paper currency was a banking innovation in the era. It had been experimented with to fund

455-529: The Bank of the People and quickly began to expand its branch network. The Bank of British North America also entered the provincial market around that time. As a result, the Bank changed its strategy and in 1850 it became the official bank of the Province of Canada, collecting all government revenue and issuing all government cheques. By 1863, the bank was struggling; in 1866 the Bank of Upper Canada closed its doors;

490-684: The Cawthra Estate located near the intersection of the Cawthra Road and the Queen Elizabeth Way . Their legacy comes from supplying eastern white pine logs for ship masts in the British Royal Navy . He served under General Arthur Currie . Insights into his time at war may be seen in the CBC series The Great War [1] which features Talbot Papineau , another of the four Canadians featured in

525-623: The Farmers' Bank and the Bank of the People were founded on a joint stock basis, until the Family Compact conspired to make new ones illegal in 1838. The monopoly of the Bank of Upper Canada had been slowly eroding with the chartering of the Commercial Bank, and then the joint-stock banks. The Act to outlaw further joint-stock banks in 1838 again tilted towards monopoly. However, in 1841 the Bank of Montreal , long seeking an entry into Upper Canada, purchased

560-495: The House of Assembly's select committee on the state of the provincial currency in 1830, he decried its privileged position as the only chartered bank in the colony and advocated a more competitive financial market. Later that year, however, he acquired his first shares in the bank, possibly in order to stand as an "anti-establishment" candidate for its directorate, along with Jesse Ketchum , Thomas David Morrison , and Robert Baldwin . He

595-476: The House of Assembly, he criticized the Bank's lack of transparency and accountability to the legislature. The Bank of Upper Canada at York (Toronto) had obtained its charter at the expense of the larger, more economically developed town of Kingston. Deprived of their charter, they established an unchartered bank in 1818 supported with American capital. The government refused to accept its notes given its American ties, and it went bankrupt in 1822. After its failure,

630-603: The areas in the European theatre in which Agar fought during the First World War . One of the treasures of the Adamson Estate are the great eastern white pine , the provincial tree of Ontario, which remain on the site and are ties to the heritage of the Adamson/Cawthra families and that of the early development of Toronto Township , Peel County , now known largely as Mississauga, Region of Peel . Another element of interest

665-500: The bank's fifteen directors, making for a tight bond between the nominally private company and the state. Despite the tight bonds, the Receiver General , the reform-leaning John Henry Dunn , refused to use the bank for government business. The bank's principal promoters were the Rev. John Strachan and William Allan . William Allan, who became president, was also an Executive and Legislative Councillor . He, like Strachan, played

700-472: The banks received government support, ordinary farmers and the poor did not. The Bank of Upper Canada was the subject of almost continuous political attack. Shortly after its founding, Reform critic William Lyon Mackenzie published a series of articles on how speculative the Bank's loan practices were, and how close to bankruptcy it was. That resulted in an event, now known as the Types Riot , in 1826 in which

735-591: The book. Agar Adamson designed and built the Belgian-style mansion on this land in 1919, after returning from the wartime service in France. In 1943, his son Anthony Adamson added a home for himself on the property. The estate was acquired by the Credit Valley Conservation Authority in 1975. The architecture of the main house, often thought to be Spanish is actually Flemish architecture , one of

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770-428: The clique of Bank officers dubbed the Family Compact destroyed Mackenzie's printing press. Mackenzie, a bank critic, pushed for a non-speculative " hard money " policy where the bank loaned out only money that it actually had. Until 1835, all banks in Upper Canada required a legislative charter. Reformers tried several legislative strategies to get their own bank, including attempts to incorporate credit unions such as

805-416: The first three years of its operation, the bank's notes comprised between 74 and 77% of the province's money supply. Between 1823 and 1837, its profit on paid in capital ranged between 3.6% (1823) and 16.5% (1832) at a time when the maximum legal interest rate was 6%. The Bank of Upper Canada suspended payments from March 5, 1838 to November 1, 1839 during the financial panic of that year. It was bankrupt, but

840-584: The full loss. Since the banks did not require a legislated charter, many more banks could be founded, and they were more competitive and freer from political influence and corruption. Duncombe's report opened the gate for many new competitive banks to enter the market - just as the entire Anglo-American financial system was coming apart at the seams in a financial panic lasting until after the Rebellions of 1837 . The Bank of Upper Canada survived only because of its influence on government. Following Duncombe's report,

875-567: The men also sat on the Legislative Council. The overlapping membership on the boards of the Bank of Upper Canada and on the Executive and Legislative Councils served to integrate the economic and political activities of the church, state, and the "financial sector." The overlapping memberships reinforced the oligarchic nature of power in the colony and allowed the administration to operate without any effective elective check. Henry John Boulton ,

910-569: The personal advice of John Wesley , the father of Methodism , not to leave it. It seems plausible that Cawthra was simply a man of independent views, with sufficient financial independence to indulge them. Cawthra Road ( Peel Regional Road 17 ) and Cawthra Park Secondary School in Mississauga are named for him. Cawthra Avenue in The Junction is not named for Cawthra but rather for the Cawthra Estate with linkage to Sir William Mulock whom had

945-485: The solicitor general, author of the bank incorporation bill and the bank's lawyer, admitted the bank was a "terrible engine in the hands of the provincial administration." William Lyon Mackenzie , the Reform politician and newspaper publisher, was the first to demonstrate the nature of that oligarchic power by showing that the government, its officers, and legislative councillors owned 5,381 of its 8,000 shares. Once elected to

980-422: The stockholders lost all of their investment of more than $ 3 million, and over $ 1 million dollars in taxpayers money was also lost. The 1827 Bank of Upper Canada Building , its second headquarters (first home was a Georgian building from 1822 and demolished 1880s with current building (now Young People's Theatre ) replacing it in 1887), still exists, located on Toronto 's Adelaide St East. It has been designated

1015-615: Was a Canadian merchant and politician . Cawthra arrived in York , Upper Canada , (now Toronto ) from Yeadon , Yorkshire , England , in 1802. He was granted a 400 acres (162 ha) tract of land in Mississauga , Ontario (which at the time was undeveloped rural property) by the Crown, provided he built a home on it within four years. The land remained in the hands of the Cawthra Family up until

1050-417: Was able to lend out many more banknotes than it had the cash to redeem because Upper Canada was a specie-poor province, and the notes would pass from hand to hand to enable trade without ever being returned to the bank. On average, the bank lent out more than three times more banknotes than it could redeem; it made 6% interest on each note that it loaned out. The bank's manager, Thomas Ridout, estimated that in

1085-476: Was closely associated with the group that came to be known as the Family Compact , and it formed a large part of their wealth. The association with the Family Compact and its underhanded practices made Reformers, including Mackenzie, regard the Bank of Upper Canada as a prop of the government. Complaints about the bank were a staple of Reform agitation in the 1830s because of its monopoly and aggressive legal actions against debtors. The first Bank of Upper Canada

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1120-509: Was elected to the directorate in 1835, and re-elected in 1836 and 1837. Cawthra was an anomalous and enigmatic figure in early Toronto society: a wealthy Anglican merchant who was involved in the Mackenzieite reform politics of Toronto who left no surviving evidence of his reasons. Family tradition records his antipathy for the family compact and ascribes his adherence to the Church of England to

1155-505: Was located on the south-east corner of King and Frederick streets in York , Upper Canada (later Toronto , Canada West ). York was then too small for a bank, and its promoters were unable to raise even the minimal 10% of the £200,000 authorized capital required for start-up. The bank succeeded only because its promoters had the political influence to have that minimum reduced by half, and the provincial government subscribed for 2000 of its 8000 shares. The lieutenant-governor appointed four of

1190-552: Was lodged by the Reformers against the Bank of Upper Canada, which served a similar role. The dismantling of the bank plunged the Anglo-American world into an enormous depression (1836-8) that was worsened by bad wheat harvests in Upper Canada in 1836. Farmers were unable to pay their debts. Most banks, including the Bank of Upper Canada,- suspended payments (i.e. declared bankruptcy) by July 1837 and requested government support. While

1225-399: Was re-taken for the reformers in 1836 by his son William. Joseph's spell of municipal office, his sole venture into electoral politics, reflected not only his prominence in reform circles but also his active engagement in civic affairs. Although Cawthra was a leading merchant, his attitude towards the Bank of Upper Canada was for a long time consistent with his politics. In evidence given to

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